Monday, June 18, 2012

Linus Torvalds, the software engineer who became the chief architect of the Linux kernel, has hit out against graphics giant Nvidia for its lack of support for the Linux platform. During a Q&A session at the Aalto University in Finland, Torvalds identifies Nvidia as “the single worst company we’ve ever dealt with” before unexpectedly turning to the camera and delivering an F-bomb complete with the middle finger gesture.

Torvalds’ frustration is worsened by the fact that Nvidia is unwilling to support Linux despite being a big player in the Android market with its Tegra line of ARM chips, especially given that Android is based on the Linux kernel.

While I agree — and in many ways sympathize — with Torvalds’ point about Nvidia with regards to Linux support, I don’t agree with the suggestion that any community is entitled to anything beyond what a company advertises as offering. We do have to bear in mind that Nvidia is under no obligation to do anything to help the Linux community, and any suggestion that Nvidia — or any other company – should play nicely with open source is based on nothing more than a feeling of entitlement.

Considering the overall size of the Linux desktop and notebook market share, it’s a tiny drop in the ocean compared to Nvidia’s other markets. It makes sense for Nvidia to embrace the Android market because it has found a way to make money from it, but it makes little sense for the company to sink R&D money into Linux on the desktop, no matter how many F-bombs Torvalds drops or how many times he flips the bird.